YCLSA Eastern Cape Provincial Lekgotla press statement

23 April 2012

The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] in the province of the Eastern Cape held a very successful Provincial Lekgotla from the 21st April until 22nd April at the University of Fort Hare, East London Campus under the theme “Jobs for youth to end poverty and inequalities”. The Lekgotla was convened after a successful Chris Hani Memorial Lecture addressed by the National Secretary of the YCLSA Cde Buti Manamela, the provincial Secretary of the South African Communist Party Cde Xolile Nqatha, the ANCYL, SASCO and COSAS.

The Lekgotla was convened as we are busy with commemorations of the legacy of the late General Secretary of the South African Communist Party and Umkhonto Wesizwe Chief of stuff. As the YCLSA in the Eastern Cape we will continue to strive to be like Chris Hani as we engage in the imperative task of crushing capitalism and make our contribution in a socialist orientated National Democratic Revolution. We commit to work tirelessly for the nationalisation and socialisation of the commanding height of the economy and the means of production.

The Lekgotla also had the pleasure again of receiving an address from the National Secretary of the YCLSA Cde Buti Manamela. In his address Cde Manamela emphasized the importance of love for our people, quoting Che Guevara; he demonstrated how Chris Hani had love for the people. He spoke extensively on the imperativeness of selflessness in the struggle so as to ensure that commitment to serving our people and bring betterment to our society.

As the YCLSA we strongly feel that the current education system perpetuates capitalism and distorts our history and heritage. Radical transformation is needed urgently in this regard to ensure that its addresses the challenges posed by the curriculum.

We are still committed to making education fashionable and preferable solution to overnight wealth accumulation through corrupts tenders which also play a major role in disrupting service delivery. The tender system creates more opportunities for capitalism to prosper thus entrenching the uncaring exploitative conditions in our society. We believe that co-operatives that our people initiates should not be only be about cleaning services and such; but should be about be about the commanding height of the economy as the most direct route to benefiting our communities.

On international relations we noted the dominance of the United Nations Security Council by the western powers and the breath of fresh that has been brought about by the strengthening of BRICS. We therefore recommend that BRICS should push for collapse of the UN Security Council in an effort to bring about a new world order. South Africa should strengthen South-South relations with particular emphasise on familiarising with the markets of Cuba, Venezuela, China and Vietnam.

We distance ourselves from the nomination of Julius Malema as a Vice President of the International Union of Socialist Youth until all disciplinary processes of the ANC has been finalised and concluded.

Our government must strengthen its relations with the security forces of Lesotho and other countries; deployments of security forces in the borders must be visible to fight and bring an end to stock theft.

We call for the urgent implementation for the establishment of the Eastern Cape TV station that will serve the communities of the Eastern Cape particularly rural areas that have not been covered by the National Broadcaster.

Delegates at the Lekgotla also vented their anger at the “Labour broking of a special type done on Zahara by TS Records. We are extremely annoyed that these aspirant bourgeois took advantage of a working class youth to remedy their own financial crisis. As the YCLSA in the Eastern Cape we feel her pain, hers and other musicians that are exploited by greedy record executives.

In conclusion we want to reaffirm our commitment to deepen and advance our campaign of struggling for Jobs for youth to end poverty and inequalities. As a revolutionary and disciplined youth wing of the SACP we will always strive to be at the forefront of finding solutions in dealing with issues that continue to torment the working class and the poor. We will work tirelessly until we attain socialism and ultimately crush capitalism.